"It’s guilt-inducing to fall in love with a septuagenarian’s album of jazz standards," says the New York Observer's Max Abelson. Nevertheless, such is the case with Allen Toussaint’s recent Nonesuch solo debut, The Bright Mississippi, which Abelson writes, is "as immaculate and simple as 1981’s Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack."

Abelson lays praise on both Toussaint and the musicians he and producer Joe Henry assembled for the project. The writer describes them as "calm, swampy, smoky, rakish and velveteen: Clarinetist Don Byron sounds like bourbon, and Marc Ribot’s guitar on 'West End Blues' will make anyone who loves his playing on Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs weep with happiness."

The album, says Abelson, "sounds like it was recorded by someone who’s been wearing a necktie all week, but it’s a very cool tie," concluding: "Sometimes stately softness is all you need."

Read the full review at observer.com.

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The Times (UK) gives four stars to the album, which reviewer John Bungey calls "a relaxed, confident homage to Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, et al." He too has kind words for the band brought together for this fresh take on New Orleans jazz standards, calling the players "some of the music’s sharpest brains," such that "even that old chestnut 'St. James Infirmary' sounds spritely again."

Ultimately, Bungey concludes, "albums such as this serve to remind us how much pop across the Western world owes to the hurricane-menaced old place."

Read the four-star review at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk.